Of the rest of the apostles, namely, SS. Paul, Jude, Bartholomew, Thomas, Simon, and John, and Luke the evangelist, there is nothing said that is materially incorrect or contradictory. It may here be ob served, however, that St Jude wrote an epistle to all the churches in the east, and particularly to the Jewish converts, cautioning them against the heresies springing up among the Christians. This epistle Luther called in question, because several ancients doubted it. The tradition of the Catholic church however makes it of divine and unquestionable authority, and it is only on this testimony that Protestants can receive it as inspired. Of St. Barnabas, Fox writes thus: "He was a native of Cyprus, but of Jewish parents: the time of his death is “uncertain, but it is supposed to be about the year of Christ 73; and "his festival, is kept on the 11th of June." Now the time of this saint's death is as certain as that of the others which Fox has recorded, but we shall have to speak of this matter by and by. Fox concludes the account of all these saints with stating that "his festival is observed," "the commemoration of this apostle," "the anniversary of his martyrdom," "his death is commemorated," or "the church commemo"rates," &c. on such a day; but in those which follow, the commemorations, and observances and festivals are omitted. That the church. did not stop commemorating the saints and martyrs, with the apostles and evangelists, we think is clearly demonstrated by the extract we have just given from the poem by St. Paulinus who lived about the middle of the fourth century, and was bishop of Nola. This writer affirms, that beside the chiefs Peter and Paul, the church, spread over innumerable nations, venerated an immense multitude of martyrs, then deposited in the catacombs of Rome. Now this church could be no other than the Catholic church, because no other existed that venerated the relics of saints and martyrs. The Catholics of this day are re-, proached by the editors of John Fox's Book of Martyrs for being superstitious, because they practice what the primitive Christians practised: consequently the primitive Christians were not Protestants, were the martyrs of those times Protestant martyrs.

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THE FIRST PRIMITIVE PERSECUTION UNDER NERO.

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The first persecution in the primitive ages of THE CHURCH," writes the martyrologist," was begun by that cruel tyrant Nero Domitius, "the sixth emperor of Rome, and A. D. 67. This monarch reigned for "the space of five years with tolerable credit to himself, but then gave way to the greatest extravagancy of temper, and to the most atro"cious barbarities." As an instance of the mildness of his disposition, on first assuming the purple, history records of him, that once when he was about to sign an order for the death of a condemned person, he cried out with compassion, "I wish I could not write." He had for bis instructors, Seneca and Burrhus the prefect of the Prætorium, to whose counsels this moderation of temper is chiefly attributed. But both these teachers connived at an adulterous intercourse which Nero had entered into when under their guidance, so defective was the virtue of the best of the heathen philosophers; and to this indulgence of the passions may be laid those infamous debaucheries and that barbarity of heart which stained the succeeding years of Nero. Besides the cruelties he inflicted on the Christians, he caused his mother to be slain in

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the year 68, put to death his wife Octavia, and cut off the heads of almost all the illustrious men of the empire. Among other diabolical outrages," says the Book of Martyrs, "he ordered that the city of "Rome should be set on fire, which was done by his officers, guards, " and servants. While the city was in flames he went up to the tower "of Mæcenas, played upon his harp, sung the song of the burning of Troy, and declared, 'That he wished the ruin of all things before his "death.' Among the noble buildings burnt was the circus, or place appropriated to horse races; it was half a mile in length, of an oval "form, with rows of seats rising above each other, and capable of reIceiving, with ease, upwards of 100,000 spectators. Many other pa"laces and houses were consumed; and several thousands of the people perished in the flames, were smothered, or burned beneath the "ruins. This dreadful conflagration continued several days; when "Nero, finding that his conduct was greatly blamed, and a severe "odium cast upon him, determined to lay the whole upon the Christians, at once to excuse himself, and have an opportunity of witnessing new cruelties. The barbarities exercised upon the Christians, during the first persecution, were such as even excited the commi"seration of the Romans themselves. Nero even refined upon cruelty, " and contrived all manner of punishments for the Christians. In par"ticular he had some sewed up in the skins of wild beasts, and then "worried by dogs till they expired; and others dressed in shirts made "stiff by wax, fixed to axle trees, and set on fire in his gardens. This "persecution was general throughout the whole Roman empire; but "it rather increased than diminished the spirit of Christianity." The fire lasted six days together, and of fourteen wards or quarters of the city, only four escaped. Of the tortures practised on the Christians Juvenal says,

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"Death was their doom, on stakes impal'd upright,
"Smear'd o'er with wax, and set on fire to light
"The streets, and make a dreadful blaze by night."

Now, if the present editors of Fox's Book of Martyrs consider this conduct of Nero, in charging the primitive Christians with setting fire to Rome, to cast the odium upon them, as base and infamous; what, we ask, car. they think of the "Protestant ascendency-men," in Charles the second's reign, who as basely attempted to fix the dreadful fire of London in 1666 on the Catholics, in order to excite the hatred of the ignorant multitude against them? Nay, more than this, these Christian calumniators raised a monumental pillar to commemorate the dire calamity, and round the pedestal of this column they placed the following inscription: "THIS PILLAR IS SET UP IN PERPETUAL REMEM“ BRANCE OF THE BURNING OF THIS PROTESTANT CITY, BY "THE POPISH FACTION, IN SEPTEMBER, A. D. 1666, FOR "THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PROTESTANT RELIGION AND " OF OLD ENGLISH LIBERTY, AND FOR THE INTRODUCTION " OF POPERY AND SLAVERY."-Thus, without a shadow of a shade of proof, did these Protestants accuse their Catholic neighbours of setting fire to the city of London, when it was evidently a stroke of the Divine hand; and they next erect a monument to perpetuate the slander to future ages. Was ever any thing so cruelly unjust, so shamefully

illiberal? We have given a representation of this mark of bigotry and intolerance, which we consider far more disgraceful to Protestant Christians than to Roman heathens. Nero falsely charged the Christians with his own infamous deed, that he might have a pretext for his cruelties; so did the Protestants under Elizabeth and the Stuarts forge plots and raise false reports against the Catholics, to give a kind of colour to their clamours for persecuting those whom they named Papists. When James the second came to the throne, he, being a Catholic, had the infamous and lying inscription erased; but such was the fury, such the bigotry of those days, that it was again inscribed on the pillar in the reign of William the third, and remains to this day a striking and incontestible memorial of the intolerant and calumniating spirit of “ Protestant-ascendency."

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It may here be asked, surely there were some grounds for the charge thus publicly and lastingly made against the Catholics? We have said that there was not a shadow of a proof; and that we may not be accused of contenting ourself with bare assertion, we will refer the reader to Rapin's History of England, the author of which being a Calvinist, was a writer by no means favourable to Catholics. Rapin says, " Men failed "not to give a scope to their imagination, and to form conjectures upon "the causes and authors of this fire. The pious and religious ascribed "it to the just vengeance of Heaven, on a city, where vice and immo"rality reigned so openly and shamefully, and which had not been sufficiently humbled by the raging pestilence of the foregoing year. "Some again, as I have said, ascribed this misfortune to the malice " of the republicans: others to the Papists. And there were some so "bold, as even to suspect the king and the duke of York. But though "several suspected persons were imprisoned, it was not possible to discover, or prove that the baker's house, where this dreadful calamity first broke out, was fired on purpose. However, [one Robert "Hubert] a French Hugunot native of Rouen, and a LUNATIC, confessing himself guilty of this fact, was CONDEMNED and EXE"CUTED. But it appeared afterwards, by testimony of the master "of the ship, who brought him from France, that though he was land"ed at the time, he did not arrive in London till two days after the "fire began. It is pretended likewise, that a Dutch boy, ten years of 66 age, confessed, that his father and himself had thrown fire-balls " into the baker's house, through a window that stood open. But, be"sides the objection which may be made to this testimony from the boy's age, there must have been some circumstance in his narrative "not agreeable to the fact, since it was not thought proper to make “ a further inquiry. Perhaps this was only a groundless report. The continuator of Baker's Chronicle makes the following observations on this remarkable visitation of Divine Vengeance: "But a ques"tion here arises, which having been so much canvassed, it is necessary to make some notice of, which is this; whether this fire were "the sole effect of the will of Heaven, or whether the wickedness of men, was the instrument of Providence to bring on this dismal calamity. To prove the latter, it has been observed, that the extent and "violence of the fire was so great, and it seemed to break out in so many different places, as makes it hardly credible that it should have

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prevailed so far, and after that manner, against the vigorous opposition made to it, had not the mischief been propagated by some other cause than its own strength. It is certain besides, that there were some persons of the republican party accused of such a design, and "executed for it not long before, namely John Rathbone, an old army 66 colonel, and some others of the same stamp, who were convicted of a design to kill the king, and overthrow the government; to effect "which, they had agreed to set fire to the city of London in several "places: and had pitched on the third of September for the day. "There was also one Hubert, a French reputed Papist, who acknowledged himself guilty of the same, and was HANGED by his own confession, no other evidence appearing against him. On the other "side, though the devastation made by the fire was so prodigious, yet "the causes that propagated it were so numerous and powerful, as to seem commensurate enough to the mischief done. The vehemence "of the wind, the oldness and dryness of the houses, and the narrowness of the streets, have been above touched on; and it is no great "wonder that the fire should become very fierce, when it had so great helps. And though its breaking out in houses at a great distance from "those that were on fire, seems to intimate that it was industriously "carried on; yet it is in truth no more than often happens upon the "like occasions. When the town of Warwick was burnt about thirty years ago, several persons, who thinking themselves safe, went out "to assist their neighbours, found their houses burnt down in their "absence; the wind being extremely high, and scattering the flakes "of fire to such great distances, as could not have been imagined till "it was found by that fatal experiment. And in a late fire in London a like accident happened; a low shed, at the length of a middling σε street from a house that was burning, being set on fire by some flaming matter carried thither by a high wind, as happened within the "writer's knowledge. As to Hubert, the man appeared to be not very "well in his senses; so that what he said cannot be depended on. Nor does it seem likely that those of Rathbone's party should venture on it, after so many of their accomplices were put out of the way; "and their scheme no doubt utterly disjointed. For these reasons, "and because no solid evidence appears to prove the contrary, it seems "most reasonable to incline to the favourable side, and to look upon "this fire as the act of Providence, intended as a punishment to those "times and a happiness to our own; the beauty, regularity and health"fulness of the new city remaining to ours, and as we may hope, to many distant ages; while the loss and calamity of the old one, was "confined to a very few years after this signal disaster happened."

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Dr. Burnet, it is true, in his History of his Own Times, to give some countenance to the diabolical inscription, for he was a bishop and a sly courtier, has a vague story of one Grant, a Papist, who procured himself to be chosen a member of the New River company, that he might stop the water at the commencement of the fire; but Higgins, in his Historical Remarks, proves, from dates, that Grant was not a member at the time of the fire, and that, had he been so, he did not possess the power in question. And now let the reader compare the accounts of the above historians with the inscription itself; let him re

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collect that the author of the inscription was a man (Sir Patience Ward) convicted of perjury; and then let him candidly say, whether the conduct of "Protestant-ascendency" towards the Catholics, only a century and a half ago, was not more shameful and atrocious than that of Nero towards the primitive Catholics at the birth of Christianity?

Of the martyrs that suffered under Nero, Fox observes, "Besides St. "Paul and St. Peter, many others, whose names have not been trans"mitted to posterity, and who were some of their converts and fol"lowers, suffered; the facts concerning the principal of whom we "shall proceed to describe." He then mentions Erastus, the chamberlain of Corinth; Aristarchus, the Macedonian; and Trophimus, an Ephesian, as converts of St. Paul, and martyrs for the faith. He also notices Ananias, bishop of Damascus, who, he says, "is celebrated "in the sacred writings for being the person who cured St. Paul of the "blindness with which he was struck by the amazing brightness which "6 happened at his conversion. He was one of the 70, and was martyred at the city of Damascus. After his death a Christian church was "built over the place of his burial, which is now converted into a "Turkish mosque." And he records the martyrdom of another saint in these words: "Joseph, commonly called Barsabas, was a primitive disciple, and is usually deemed one of the seventy. He was, in some degree, "related to the Redeemer; and he became a candidate together with "Matthias, to fill the vacant place of Judas Iscariot. The ecclesiasti"cal writers make very little other mention of him; but Papius informs us, that he wa sonce compelled to drink poison, which did not do him "the least injury, agreeable to the promise of the Lord, to those who "believe in him. He was during his life a zealous preacher of the gospel; and having received many insults from the Jews, at length, "obtained martyrdom, being murdered by the Pagans in Judea."

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Such is the account given by John Fox, and we beg the reader's attention to the remarks we shall now offer upon it. In the first place, he gives us no authority for his pretended facts, nor have we been able to trace any particulars of the martyrdom of the first three personages he has named in the ecclesiastical accounts of Echard, Butler, and others. Of Ananias he speaks with much certainty, though little is known of him, except what is recorded in the acts of the apostles. We cannot find that he is placed in the Roman martyrology, though the Greeks give him a place in their calendar. That no positive records were preserved of him is clear from St. Augustin speaking of him with doubt; which would not have been the case had this Ananias been one of the principal sufferers under Nero, as Fox reckons him. "After his death," writes this Protestant martyrologist," a Christian church was built over "the place of his burial, which is now converted into a Turkish mosque." And this account we presume is sufficient to gain credit with a Protestant, though a Catholic, who is repeatedly charged with being credulous and superstitious, would require some dates and authorities before he would believe it. Taking the time of the death of Ananias to be in the last year of the reign of Nero, that is, in the year 68, nearly six hundred years must have transpired before the Turks obtained possession of Damascus. When then was this church built? And by whom? The gazetteers tell us that there are about 2000